This invention relates to a sample chucking apparatus and, more particularly, to a sample chucking apparatus suitable for semiconductor manufacturing equipment for which a sample needs to be fixed or carried.
As a super structure is utilized on VLSI, for increasing productivity, it is essential in semiconductor manufacturing equipment that dust not be allowed to stick on the surface of a semiconductor element substrate (hereinafter called "wafer") or sample. Accordingly, a posture of the wafer to be fixed or carried for processing is changed from a position in which the surface to be processed is maintained horizontally upward to a position in which the surface to be processed is maintained vertically or horizontally downward, and the tendency is particularly remarkable with the semiconductor manufacturing equipment for forming a film on the wafer surface to be processed by a sputtering device of the manufacturing equipment.
In, for example, Japanese Laid Open Application No. 103442/1981, a sample chucking apparatus used on a conventional semiconductor manufacturing device is proposed wherein a wafer or a sample is held by a spring force of a plurality of clips, and the wafer is released by mechanically expanding the clips on a pusher.
In the sample chucking apparatus, the wafer is held and released in the atmosphere and an air cylinder or the like is used for actuating the pusher, with the pusher being movable along a flexible piping provided therefor.
However, in sputtering devices of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, it is necessary for the sample to be moved from a horizontal position to a vertical position or from a vertical position to a horizontal position under vacuum so as to process the sample at a preferable degree of vacuum, and thus, in the semiconductor manufacturing equipment using a conventional sampling chucking apparatus, the structure inevitably becomes complicated and it is difficult to secure a reliable fixing or carrying of the sample. Furthermore, a volume of a vacuum chamber in which the sample chucking apparatus is provided becomes larger resulting in an increase of the exhaust time.
An object of this invention is to provide a sample chucking apparatus which is simple in construction and which ensures a reliable fixing or carrying of a sample.
According to the invention, the sample chucking apparatus comprises a clip provided at a plural portion correspondingly to a sample and operating closably to release and hold the sample, a means for actuating the clip using a magnetic force, a means for actuating the clip using a spring force counter to the direction in which the clip operates, and a magnetic force, and the apparatus is simple in structure and ensures a reliable fixing or carrying or the sample,